Andy Serwer

Cameron Bready knows he needs to deliver.

The CEO of Global Payments, a provider of payment technology and services to merchants (Think credit-card point-of-sale transactions at your local coffee shop.), is running a growth business, but the stock hasn't acted like it. While revenue has risen from $4.9 billion to $10.1 billion over the past five years, the share price is down some 50%.

Bready, who became CEO on June 1, 2023, acknowledges a too-complex structure and a lack of focus have hurt. He has been looking to address those issues, highlighted by a deal in mid April, when Global Payments bought Worldpay for $24.25 billion. The company sold its consumer-focused business to Fidelity National Information Services, which sold its Worldpay businesses, which focus on merchants, to Global Payments.

The benefit isn't so much that the Worldpay acquisition gives Global Payments new technology as that it increases the reach of the business, Bready said.

Unfortunately for Bready, so far the market has rewarded Fidelity National, up almost 16% since the deal was announced, while Global Payments is down 1.2%. Now Bready & Co. are fighting back with what they say is the first step in demonstrating the power of what the newly combined Global Payments and Worldpay can offer customers: a point-of-sale platform called Genius.

"We've always had really strong point of sale capabilities inside of our company, but they were a little fragmented," says Bready. Now, he says "We're really bringing all those capabilities together."

Bready says that Genius will be more integrated and not "clunky for the business user," as he says some of his competitors' offerings are. "What really separates us on the capability side, is we're built specifically for the dynamic and fast paced environments of restaurants and retail. And we can scale. So we can serve the most high-volume, complex, quick service restaurant, big stadium and event venue environments, all the way down to the local coffee shop. In terms of serving customers, we provide a white-glove service to our clients that I think is truly distinctive relative to our peers and competitors."

Bready acknowledges that he has work to make the stock market believe in his vision. "We think there's an immense amount of value creation potential for shareholders, Bready said, "and obviously we're working very hard every day to unlock that and realize that for them."

Write to Andy Serwer at andy.serwer@barrons.com

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May 16, 2025 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT)

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